Laurel Valley Sugar Plantation, Sugar plantation historic district in Thibodaux, Louisiana, United States

Laurel Valley Sugar Plantation is a historic sugar plantation complex in Thibodaux, Louisiana, with about 40 original structures remaining. The main house, built around 1880, is not the oldest building; the Boudreaux family home from 1816 survives on the property. The site includes Creole cabins from around 1845 and shotgun houses from around 1895. A ruined red brick building with arched openings and weathered wooden doors stands in tall grass.

Etienne Boudreaux, a French Acadian expelled from Nova Scotia, bought a Spanish land grant two miles south of Thibodaux along Bayou Lafourche in 1785. Joseph W. Tucker, a Virginian, acquired the property in 1832 and built a mill; it became the largest sugar producer in Lafourche Parish. Union soldiers burned Tucker's main house during the Civil War. The mill stopped in 1926, and the site was listed on the National Register in 1978.

The name Laurel Valley was applied to the property after Joseph W. Tucker bought it in 1832. The general store, moved to the site from elsewhere, now displays cane-farming tools and implements alongside locally made arts and crafts. The plantation has drawn film crews: Interview with the Vampire, Angel Heart and Ray were shot among its buildings.

Guided tours of the property are offered; the general store is open to the public and displays sugar-cane tools and farm implements. The site is a working sugarcane farm, so stay on the paths and keep clear of fields and equipment. More than a dozen original buildings were lost to Hurricane Ida in 2021, so expect gaps among the roughly 40 surviving structures.

The general store open to visitors was not built on the plantation; it was moved there and now displays sugar-cane tools and farm implements alongside locally made arts and crafts. The site also drew film crews: Interview with the Vampire, Angel Heart and Ray were shot among its buildings.